After spending around five months onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) SpaceX Crew-10 members made their return to Earth on Saturday.
Crew make their return
The 4-member crew, which includes Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, departed the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule on Friday, August 8.
They splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the United States West Coast on Saturday morning, the first time a NASA Commercial Crew mission has landed in those waters.
This follows the Crew-11 mission’s return on August 2.
For Ayers and Peskov, it was their first spaceflight, while McClain and Onishi completed their second missions.
The crew will now fly to Houston to be reunited with their families.
NASA acting Administrator Sean Duffy praised the successful mission.
“Our crew missions are the building blocks for long-duration, human exploration pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” he said in a NASA statement.
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What was Crew-10’s mission?
The mission launched on March 14 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked with the ISS’s Harmony module on March 16, carrying the four-member crew to begin their long-duration stay in orbit.
Over the course of their exploration, the astronauts completed 2,368 orbits around the Earth and traveled nearly 62.8 million miles.
During the mission, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, and Takuya Onishi led experiments on plant and microalgae growth, the effects of space radiation on plant DNA, and how microgravity impacts human eye structure and cellular health.
The research, part of ongoing ISS scientific programs, is aimed at advancing technologies and knowledge needed for future human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
On May 1, McClain and Ayers also conducted a spacewalk, relocating a communications antenna and beginning installation of a mounting bracket for a future Roll-Out Solar Array.
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Shameeka Voyiya 
Newsjustnews writers 
Ren Azrack Escosio